Security cameras operated by the Department of Homeland Security are installed in front of a federal building in New York. AP file photo

Written by

Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Last week, Buzzfeed reporter Benny Johnson went to work on a list of the seven ugliest federal buildings in Washington, D.C. But what he found was even uglier than the buildings: ignorant, heavy-handed law enforcement officers who told him -- wrongly -- that he couldn't photograph the ugly architecture.

Johnson repeatedly confirmed with the media-relations folks at these agencies that it was OK for him to photograph the buildings -- as it is for any member of the public -- but word hadn't filtered down to the guys with guns.

Johnson writes: "After I took this photo of a public walkway in front of ...